You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment gearing up for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The artist, birth name Jessica Cornish, is famous for telling it as it is. The album, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while still secretly living with breast cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is quick, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I basically roast the audience.”
Personal Battles and News
Cornish was getting ready for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they told me, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and pins and needles in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.
“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but then I just walked with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Luckily it was detected early. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now resembles a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”
The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Previous Struggles
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”
She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in 2020 I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I need a moment. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees
